Tools

My playbook of the tools I actually use. What it is, why I use it. Short on purpose.

Three rules run through all of it:

• Own my data. It's mine, not training material.
• Less friction. Everything connected, one system.
• Choose, don't get fed. I decide what I consume.

Browser​

Helium — my browser. Chromium without Google.

Why not Chrome?​

• Google tracks you across everything. Signed in or not.
• Your searches become ads targeted back at you. That's not a recommendation — that's exploitation.
• I went Chrome → Firefox → Brave → Helium.
• Helium keeps the Chromium engine, drops the surveillance.

Inside the browser​

• 1Password — passwords, one extension, everywhere. And if a bus hits me tomorrow, the people I love aren't locked out of my life.
• Instapaper — grab articles now, read them on my phone later.
• Unhook — strips YouTube's feed. I search for what I want to watch, instead of being told by the algorithm.

Daily drivers​

• VS Code — I live here. Code, writing, journaling, my whole Life OS.
• Claude Code — architect and main driver for writing code.
• Beekeeper Studio — connecting to my databases and working with them.
• Ghostty — terminal.
• GitHub — all my code and my Life OS.
• gh CLI — GitHub from the terminal.

Life OS on my phone​

• Obsidian — journaling and Life OS on mobile. I left Notion for this — my notes shouldn't be someone else's training data. Laptop stays VS Code.
• Git Sync — pulls my Life OS repo to my phone, pushes when I'm done journaling.

Utilities​

• Wisprflow — dictation. Experimenting with talking instead of typing — feels more natural while working from home.
• Homebrew — package manager. Manages all my apps.
• Tailscale — VPN across my devices.
• Termius — SSH into my laptop from my phone. I can run Claude Code and reach all my files from anywhere.

Sometimes​

• Spotify — music. Not often. But sometimes I want to feel human.